Benedict Cumberbatch reads James Corden an election-related bedtime story

By Ned Ehrbar

Updated on: November 8, 2016 / 2:33 PM
/ CBS News

As bedtime stories go, the tale of the 2016 U.S. presidential election might be too terrifying for some youngsters.

That’s the lesson James Corden learned, at least, during a skit on “The Late Late Show” that featured Benedict Cumberbatch as his dad reading him a story about the Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump campaigns.

Cumberbatch tells the tale of a woman who very much wanted to rule the kingdom -- “some would say too much.” As her journey takes her closer to the White House, familiar faces from the past year pop up in the form of a dark forest filled with computers full of emails, a fox that delivers bad news and many, many trolls.

“Things got scary for the lady,” Cumberbatch read. “She was nearly defeated by an old, old man with hair of white. He said he could take from the rich and give to the poor, no matter how impossible his plans were.”

But that was nothing compared to the foe that was waiting for her: the big, orange monster.

“This orange monster had somehow already swallowed 16 other monsters in the forest -- a prince named Jeb who thought that the land should belong to him, a sleeping beauty named Ben who only spoke with his eyes closed, and a Texas senator named Ted who came from a tea party,” Cumberbatch read.